Platform Executive

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: South Korea’s parliament passes bill to curb Google, Apple commission dominance South Korea's parliament has now approved a bill that bans major app store operators such as Google and Apple from forcing software developers to use their payment systems, effectively stopping them from charging commissions on in-app purchases. It is the first such curb by a major economy on the likes of Apple Inc and Google, which face global criticism for requiring the use of proprietary payment systems that charge commissions of up to 30%. The final vote was 180 in favour out of 188 attending to pass the amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, dubbed the "Anti-Google law." "We'll reflect on how to comply with this law while maintaining a model that supports a high-quality operating system and app store, and we will share more in the coming weeks," a Google spokesperson said in a...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Why and how China is drastically limiting online gaming for under 18s As widely reported, China has introduced new rules that limit the amount of time under-18s can spend on video games to three hours a week, a move it said was necessary to combat gaming addiction. The new rules place the onus on implementation on the gaming industry and are not laws per se that would punish individuals for infractions. WHY IS CHINA CONCERNED ABOUT GAMING ADDICTION? Authorities in China, the world's largest video games market, have worried for years about addiction to gaming and the internet among young people, setting up clinics which combine therapy and military drills for those with so-called "gaming disorders". Rising rates of nearsightedness were also cited as a concern in 2018. The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the regulator which approves video game titles, said on Mond...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Disney to move Hotstar content to Hulu, ESPN+ in US Walt Disney Co has said that content from its streaming service Hotstar — home to India's IPL cricket tournament and original shows like "Aarya" — will migrate to its ESPN+ and Hulu streaming platforms in the US. Disney, which has 174 million paying customers across its four streaming services, is looking to slowly consolidate its content into a Disney Bundle, which includes ESPN+, Hulu , Disney+ and more than 100,000 movies, TV episodes as well as sports events. Sports content from Hotstar will move to ESPN+, and Hotstar movies as well as TV shows will migrate to Hulu, which is home to series like "The Handmaid's Tale". A Hotstar annual subscription costs $49.99 per year, while the Disney Bundle, which starts at $13.99 per month, will cost subscribers at least $167.88 for a year. Hotstar users in the US will receive ...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Zoom shares record worst day in 9 months as searing growth tapers off Zoom shares tumbled nearly 17% yesterday, after the video conferencing company signalled a faster-than-expected drop in demand and analysts questioned its future plans as people return to office. Zoom and other video conferencing services such as Cisco , Microsoft's Teams and Salesforce's Slack raked in millions of new users as the pandemic forced people to work, study and communicate with friends and family remotely. With easing pandemic curbs, Zoom Video Communications Inc will need to find new avenues for growth. The company already made a $14.7 billion bet on Five9 in July to bolster its contact center business. Analysts said it would take a few quarters for Zoom to return to its true underlying growth rate. "There are significant questions outstanding regarding how new customer demand and customer churn rates...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Russia’s Yandex restructures JV ownership with Uber in $1 billion deal Yandex has said it would buy Uber's stakes in their joint FoodTech, delivery and self-driving businesses, and increase its stake in a mobility-focused joint venture as part of a $1 billion deal. The Russia-based company added that it had received a call option to purchase Uber's remaining stake in mobility businesses for up to $2 billion. The restructured joint venture MLU will continue to focus on mobility businesses, including ride-hailing and car sharing, Yandex said. Under the agreement, Yandex will receive Uber's 33.5% indirect interest in Yandex.Eats, Yandex.Lavka and Yandex.Delivery as well as 18.2% interest in Yandex Self-Driving Group (SDG), giving Yandex 100% ownership in all businesses. "The consolidation of these businesses puts us in a great position to further increase strategic management flexibi...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Lobbying: Google, Facebook, Microsoft top EU spending Google, Facebook and Microsoft are the three biggest lobbying spenders in Europe in a battle against tough new laws aimed at curbing US tech giants' powers, a study released on Tuesday showed. Such efforts should be a wake-up call to EU policymakers to further beef up the draft laws and lobbying rules, the study by campaign groups Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl warned. The tech sector outspends even the pharma, fossil fuels, finance and chemicals sectors, which used to dominate lobbying, the report said. "The rising lobby firepower of big tech and the digital industry as a whole mirrors the sectors' huge and growing role in society," the study said. "It is remarkable and should be a cause of concern that the platforms can use this firepower to ensure their voices are heard – over countervailing and critical...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Robinhood shares fall after PayPal news, SEC scrutiny of revenue stream Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc, a popular gateway for trading meme stocks, tumbled nearly 7% on news that PayPal Holdings Inc may start an online brokerage and a report saying regulators were looking at a possible ban on a practice that accounts for the bulk of the company's revenue. Shares of Robinhood extended an early decline after CNBC reported that PayPal was exploring ways to let US customers trade individual stocks on its platform. Robinhood shares fell further after Gary Gensler, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, told Barron's in an interview published that payment for order flow has "an inherent conflict of interest." Retail brokers such as Robinhood send their customers' orders to wholesale brokers rather than exchanges in the controversial practice known by the acronym PFOF....

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Uber proposes industry-wide gig worker benefits model in Canada Uber Technologies Inc has proposed a plan for a flexible benefits fund for app-based ride-hail and food delivery drivers in Canada under which all gig industry players would share data on workers' hours and earnings. Under the preliminary proposal outlined in a company blog post , the fund would provide gig workers with cash benefits to put toward a retirement or life insurance plan, or to pay for educational or dental and health benefits not covered by Canada's universal healthcare system. The benefits fund would be enabled by Canada's provincial governments, Uber said in the blog post without providing further details, but managed by ride-hail and delivery companies. The companies would share data on drivers' hours and earnings and pay into the fund proportionally. Workers would qualify for fund benefits if they meet a...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Zoom’s tepid growth forecast takes shine off billion-dollar quarter Zoom  posted its first billion-dollar revenue quarter but signalled a faster-than-expected easing in demand for its video-conferencing service after a pandemic-driven boom, sending its shares tumbling 11%. The company has forecast third-quarter revenue between $1.015 billion and $1.020 billion, compared with the analysts' average estimate of $1.013 billion, according to Refinitiv data. That indicates a rise of just about 31.2% from a year earlier, compared with multiple-fold growth rates in 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis had turned Zoom into a household name due to the rise of remote working and schooling. "We had expected that (the slowdown) towards the end of the year, but it's just happened a little bit more quickly than we expected," CFO Kelly Steckelberg said on an earnings call. Zoom has faced pressure this y...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: CNBC reports that PayPal is exploring stock-trading platform for US users Shares of PayPal Holdings Inc jumped yesterday after a report that it is exploring ways to let its US customers trade individual stocks on its platform. The payments company also hired brokerage industry veteran Rich Hagen, CNBC reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Hagen is the CEO of Invest at PayPal, as well as the co-founder and former president of brokerage Ally Invest, according his LinkedIn page. PayPal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has massive scale, with some 400 million accounts and launched cryptocurrency trading in the US earlier in the year. In a February presentation, PayPal said its total addressable market, including bill payment, government payments and asset trading was $110 trillion. Retail trading has ballooned in the past few years as online platforms...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Instagram to require users to share their birthday amid youth safety push Instagram will begin requiring users to confirm their birthdays as part of an effort to create new safety features for young people, the Facebook-owned social media app has said. Instagram has explored building a version of its app for kids under the age of 13, prompting lawmakers to urge Facebook to drop the plans, saying the social media company "has a clear record of failing to protect children on its platforms." Instagram said in a blog post it will use the information to "ensure we provide the right experiences to the right age group." Last month, the company said it would default users under 16 to a private account when they join the platform. The app said it will ask users for their birthdays when they open Instagram and then to show several pop-up notifications if the user does not enter their birt...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: China’s tech crackdown continues with curbs on online gaming for kids China has forbidden under-18s from playing video games for more than three hours a week, a stringent social intervention that it said was needed to pull the plug on a growing addiction to what it once described as "spiritual opium". The new rules, published yesterday by the Communist government, are part of a major shift by unelected bureaucrats in Beijing to strengthen control over its society and key sectors of its economy, including tech, education and property, after years of runaway growth. The restrictions, which apply to any devices including phones, are a body blow to a global gaming industry that caters to tens of millions of young players in the world's most lucrative market. They limit under-18s to playing for one hour a day - 8pm to 9pm - on only Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, according to the Xinhua sta...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Australia considering new laws for Apple, Google, WeChat digital wallets The Australian government is considering new laws that would tighten the regulation of digital payment services by tech giants such as Apple and Google. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he would "carefully consider" that and other recommendations from a government-commissioned report into whether the payments system had kept pace with advances in technology and changes in consumer demand. Services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and China's WeChat Pay, which have grown rapidly in recent years, are not currently designated as payment systems, putting them outside the regulatory system. "Ultimately, if we do nothing to reform the current framework, it will be Silicon Valley alone that determines the future of our payments system, a critical piece of our economic infrastructure," Frydenberg said in an opinion ...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Researchers, cybersecurity agency urge action by Microsoft cloud database users Researchers who discovered a massive flaw in the main databases stored in Microsoft Corp's Azure cloud platform urged all users to change their digital access keys, not just the 3,300 it notified this week. As first reported by journalists at our partner news agency Reuters, researchers at a cloud security company called Wiz discovered this month they could have gained access to the primary digital keys for most users of the Cosmos DB database system, allowing them to steal, change or delete millions of records. Alerted by Wiz, Microsoft rapidly fixed the configuration mistake that would have made it easy for any Cosmos user to get into other customers' databases, then notified some users Thursday to change their keys. In a blog post Friday, Microsoft said it warned customers which had set up Cosmos access durin...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Singapore’s Shopee changes the game in Brazil’s e-commerce sector Shopee took just two years to become Brazil's most-downloaded shopping app, winning users to its low-cost marketplace with its game-changing approach to e-commerce: in-app mini-games offering coupons to winning users. The Singapore-based company has combined online shopping with the gaming nous of its separate mobile game arm Garena - creator of "Free Fire", Brazil's most-downloaded title for eight consecutive quarters - to generate sales analysts estimated at almost a third of local champion Magazine Luiza SA. Back home, Shopee only needed five years to become Southeast Asia's most-visited e-commerce website, overtaking the likes of Lazada, backed by Alibaba , and Tokopedia, backed by SoftBank Group . "Shopee has a track record in Southeast Asia of coming into the market late, looking at how others have sol...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Clubhouse launches surround-sound feature to help chats feel life-like Clubhouse, an audio-only chat app has said it will launch a spatial audio feature to make voices sound as if they're coming from different directions, helping conversations and virtual performances feel more life-like. The app, which is backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, jumpstarted the social audio trend last year and became known for chatrooms of thousands that included chief executives and celebrities. However, it faces increasing competition from larger tech giants like Facebook , Twitter and Spotify , which have all introduced their own social audio chat features. The new surround-sound-like feature will help Clubhouse lean into performances and entertainment rooms that have proliferated on the app. Depending on how many speakers are in a Clubhouse room and a variety of other factors, the app's techn...

The full version of the article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Chinese social media platforms to “rectify” financial self-media accounts China's top social media platforms, Wechat, Douyin, Sina Weibo and Kuaishou, have said they would begin to rectify irregular practices of "self-media" accounts that publish financial information, reported state media Global Times. This follows an announcement by China's cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), that it would look into accounts that have repeatedly released financial news illegally, distorted economic policy interpretation, badmouthed financial markets, spread rumours and disrupted network communications. The term "self-media" is mostly used on Chinese social media to describe independently operated accounts that produce original content but are not officially registered with the authorities. WeChat said in a statement on Saturday that from now until Octob...